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Personally, I love maps. I studied geography at university, which probably has something to do with it. I made this at the start of the year as a present for one of my sisters friends, but it took a while to get to her!While browsing in a posh shop, my sister saw a map picture she liked. However, it was nearly £40, so she asked me to make one as a present for her best friend (who I know also has a soft spot for geography). Now her friend is Irish, so the first step was to rip out the Irish map pages from my mums road atlas (sorry mum!) and pick out some meaningful locations. My mum has since got horribly lost when driving as a direct result of some other key pages becoming loose and falling out. I then got my husband to buy a Ribba frame from Ikea on his way back to Brighton.

I did think about buying a heart shape punch, but in the end decided to make origami hearts. I used instructions from Origami Club which I found on Pinterest.

I did a sample origami heart first, and marked on it the sections of paper which form the top of the heart. I had to jiggle around the template to make sure the requested locations were visible on the origami hearts.

I then had a think about backgrounds. I could have stuck with white (boring) but then I tried using the map as the background instead. One of the hearts was more sea than land, so it looked fine on a map background, and the other heart was more land, so I manoeuvred the background around so it was on mostly sea. I then glued it down with a few dabs of mod podge and left it to dry. Check out the finished frame below. I’m pretty pleased with it!

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I was after a quick and effective idea to make a birthday card, so I did lots of hunting around for some inspiration. I really wanted an idea for a nice flat paper flower, but this seems surprisingly hard to find. In the end, I found this great tutorial on how to make fabric hexagonal yo yos, and decided to try it with paper. It worked really well, although I will say a thicker, better quality paper made it so much easier and gave a nice finish. I used two different sized hexagonal flowers to decorate my card – one on top of the other, finished off with a sequin.

I’ve put together a little tutorial on how to make them, and combined with the fabric tutorial, hopefully it should all make sense! As usual, if there are any problems, please let me know and I’ll do my best to help.

Ingredients

Patterned paper (a bit thicker is easier to work with)

Circle template (I used a glass)

Instructions

1. Cut out a circle from paper – any size will do but the smaller the more fiddly it gets (about 8cm across is a good size).

2. Fold in half and then into quarters. 3. Unfold the circle, and mark the centre (this makes the next few folds so much easier). 4. Fold one edge into the centre mark. 5. Fold the left hand corner into the centre. 6. Repeat stage 5 twice more, until it looks like the example below. 7. Fold the left hand corner into the middle to make a point.8. Unfold the point, and put the left hand edge on top of the right hand edge, as shown below.9. After stage 8, you will be left with a little flappy bit.10. This bit is really hard to explain, but you need to flip the flap under the triangle to the left of the last triangle which you made. I had to try this stage out a few times before I got it right, so please let me know if you get stuck. 11. Tuck the flap in, and make sure all your triangle seams line up centrally.

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Following my post last week about working with Fantastic Ribbons, I’ve finally completed my papier mache bird. It is on the top shelf of our handmade alcove unit, and looks quite sweet. The method which I came up with to make my bird could easily be used to make any different papier mache shape, including letters. If you get around to trying it out, I would love to see how you get on.

How to make a papier mache bird

Cut out two bird templates from some thin cardboard (a cereal box works well) and cut thin strips (approximately 1.5cm wide) out from the card. These will make the sides of your bird and also the blocks to keep the shape.

Using the strips of card, make three circles, and strategically tape them into place on your bird template (as shown below). This will keep the shape of your bird as you start building it.

Balance the two templates on top of each other, using the circles to maintain the shape. Tape the thin cardboard strips around the edge using masking tape, and use more tape to secure the whole shape together. Keep taping until it is fairly sturdy.

Make sure your bird can stand up on its own. If not, tape a small flat piece of card on the bottom to make a stand (you can just see this in the picture above).

Messy bit (which I forgot to photograph)! – stick strips of white paper onto the shape using PVA glue. Leave to dry completely. Do a second layer on top, made from kitchen roll.

How you decorate is up to you. Paint or decoupage would work lovely. I am lazy, so I edged mine with my washi tape from Fantastic Ribbons, and used an old book of flowers to decorate the sides. The little wing is made from an old map, and a button.

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Just a quick post to show you some super easy instructions I came across on Pinterest on how to make an origami butterfly. I am terrible at following simple instructions, especially for origami, but even I managed this. I made 3 butterflies to decorate a card for a friends birthday and added some pearly antenna. The papers came from another friend, in the amazing bag of goodies which I got in the post a while ago.

I am thinking about making some more and using them for some kind of picture, if I ever get round to making it, you will be the first to know 🙂

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I was taught how to make these origami stars a couple of years ago, and the person who taught me kindly did a colour coded copy to refer to in the future so I never forget how to do them. Another way to make sure I don’t forget it to blog them! They are really simple to make once you get going.

Ingredients

11-12 paper squares in any size. I made a big one out of A4 paper folded into a square, and then used the off-cuts to make mini-stars.

PVA glue or glue dots.

Ribbon or string to hang your star.

Recipe

Fold a square of paper into quarters as shown below.

Next, fold each corner point into the middle to make a square shape.

You then need to make a diamond shape by folding the outer edges of your square into the middle.

Your diamond should end up looking like this.

Next, fold over the short triangle of your diamond, as shown below.

Finally, you need to fold the triangle in half up the middle as shown below.

You’ll need to make 11-12 of these paper triangles, and they fit together as shown below. There are some little slots on the right angle of the triangle which you can insert the triangle point into. It takes a bit of wiggling and glue to get them to sit in a circle – once you are happy with the shape, leave them to dry for a while, then add some ribbon or string to hang them.

I hope my instructions are followable, but if you have any questions post me a comment and I will do my best to help 🙂